JOHN    GILLEY 

MAINE    FARMER 
AND   FISHERMAN 


"TRUE    AMERICAN    TYPES 


Vol.  I.  JOHN  GILLEY:  Maine  Farmer  and 
Fisherman,  by  CHARLES  W.  ELIOT. 

Vol.  II.  AUGUSTUS  CONANT  :  Illinois 
Pioneer  and  Preacher,  by  ROBERT 

COLLYER. 

Vol.111.  CAPN  CHAD  WICK:  Marble- 
head  Skipper  and  Shoemaker,  by  JOHN 
W.  CHADWICK. 

Vol.  IV.  DAVID  LIB  BEY  :  Penobscot 
Woodsman  and  River-driver,  by  FANNIE 
H.  ECKSTORM. 

Vol.  V.  CAPTAIN  THOMAS  A.  SCOTT: 
Master  Diver,  by  F.  HOPKINSON  SMITH. 


Price,  each,  60  cents,  net;  by  mail,  65  crnts. 


AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION 
Publishers,  Boston,  Massachusetts 


JOHN    GILLEY 

MAINE    FARMER 
AND    FISHERMAN 


BY 


CHARLES  W.  ELIOT 


BOSTON 

AMERICAN  UNITARIAN    ASSOCIATION 
25  BEACON  STREET 


COPYRIGHT  1899 
THE  CENTURY  COMPANY 


Reprinted  from  The  Century  Magazine  by  kind 
ptrmiuion  of  THE  CENTURY  COMPANY 


ENGLISH  1 


THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
CAMBRIDGE,      U.S.A. 


TO    THE 

BRAVE    SETTLERS 
WHO    LEVELLED 

FORESTS 

CLEARED    FIELDS 

MADE    PATHS  BY 

LAND    AND    WATER 

AND    PLANTED 
COMMONWEALTHS 

/*     TO    THE 
/BRAVE    WOMEN 
/  WHO    IN 

I  SOLITUDES 

/       AMID    STRANGE 
*\         DANGERS   AND 
\          HEAVY    TOIL 

REARED  FAMILIES 
I  AND  MADE  HOMES 
^•v^ 


[FROM  THB  INSCRIPTIONS  ON  THE  WATER  GATE  AT  THE 
WORLD'S  FAIR,  CHICAGO] 


423893 


JOHN     GILLEY 

TO    be    absolutely    forgotten    in 
a    few    years    is    the    common 
fate   of  mankind.     Isaac  Watts  did 
not  exaggerate  when  he  wrote : 

Time,  like  an  ever-rolling  stream, 

Bears  all  its  sons  away  : 
They  fly  forgotten,  as  a  dream 

Dies  at  the  opening  day. 

With  the  rarest  exceptions,  the 
death  of  each  human  individual  is 
followed  in  a  short  time  by  com 
plete  oblivion,  so  far  as  living  human 
memories  are  concerned.  Even  fam 
ily  recollection  or  tradition  quickly 
becomes  dim,  and  soon  fades  utterly 
away.  Few  of  us  have  any  clear 


;JOHN   GILLEY 

transmitted  impression  of  our  great- 
grandparents  ;  some  of  us  could  not 
describe  our  grandparents.  Even 
men  accounted  famous  at  their  deaths 
slip  from  living  memories  and  become 
mere  shadows  or  word-pictures  — 
shadows  or  pictures  which  too  often 
distort  or  misrepresent  the  originals. 
Not  one  human  being  in  ten  million 
is  really  long  remembered.  For  the 
mass  of  mankind  absolute  oblivion, 
like  death,  is  sure.  But  what  if  it 
is?  Should  this  indubitable  fact 
affect  injuriously  the  mortal  life  in 
this  world  of  the  ordinary  human 
being?  Not  at  all.  For  most  men 
and  women  the  enjoyments,  inter 
ests,  and  duties  of  this  world  are  just 
as  real  and  absorbing,  at  the  moment, 
as  they  would  be  if  the  enjoying, 


JOHN    GILLEY 

interested,  and  dutiful  individuals 
could  imagine  that  they  were  long  to 
be  remembered  on  this  earthly  stage. 
A  few  unusually  imaginative  and 
ambitious  persons  are  doubtless  stim 
ulated  and  supported  by  the  hope 
of  undying  fame  —  a  hope  which  in 
the  immense  majority  of  such  cases 
proves  to  be  a  pure  delusion.  The 
fact  is  that  forelooking  is  not  a  com 
mon  occupation  of  the  human  mind. 
We  all  live,  as  a  rule,  in  the  present 
and  the  past,  and  take  very  little 
thought  for  the  future.  Now,  in 
estimating  the  aggregate  well-being 
and  happiness  of  a  community  or  a 
nation,  it  is  obviously  the  condition 
of  the  obscure  millions,  who  are  sure 
to  be  absolutely  forgotten,  that  it  is 
most  important  to  see  and  weigh 
3 


JOHN    GILLEY 

aright ;  yet  history  and  biography 
alike  neglect  these  humble,  speech 
less  multitudes,  and  modern  fiction 
finds  it  profitable  to  portray  the 
most  squalid  and  vicious  sides  of 
the  life  of  these  millions  rather 
than  the  best  and  the  commonest. 
Thus  the  facts  about  the  life  of  the 
common  multitude  go  unobserved, 
or  at  least  unrecorded,  while  fiction 
paints  that  life  in  false  colors. 

This  little  book  describes  with 
accuracy  the  actual  life  of  one  of  the 
to-be-forgotten  millions.  Is  this  life 
a  true  American  type  ?  If  it  is, 
there  is  good  hope  for  our  country. 

John   Gilley    was    born    February 

22,  1822,  at  the  Fish  Point  on  Great 

Cranberry    Island,    Maine,    whither 

his    mother,   who    lived    on    Baker's 

4 


JOHN    GILLEY 

Island,  had  gone  to  be  confined  at 
the  house  of  Mrs.  Stanley,  a 
midwife.  Baker's  Island  lies  nearly 
four  miles  from  the  island  of  Mount 
Desert.  It  is  a  roundish  island,  a 
little  more  than  half  a  mile  long 
from  north  to  south,  and  a  little 
less  than  half  a  mile  wide  from  east 
to  west.  At  low  tide  it  is  connected 
with  another  much  larger  island, 
called  Little  Cranberry,  by  a  reef  and 
bar  about  a  mile  long  ;  but  by  half- 
tide  this  bar  is  entirely  covered. 
Almost  all  the  coasting  vessels 
which  come  from  the  westward, 
bound  to  the  Bay  of  Fundy  or  to 
the  coast  of  Maine  east  of  French 
man's  Bay,  pass  just  outside  of  Bak 
er's  Island ;  and,  as  this  island  has 
some  dangerous  ledges  near  it,  the 
5 


JOHN    GILLEY 

United  States  built  a  lighthouse  on 
its  highest  part  in  the  year  1828. 
The  island  has  no  good  harbor ;  but 
in  the  summer  small  vessels  find  a 
safe  anchorage  on  the  north  side  of 
it,  except  in  easterly  storms.  The 
whole  shore  of  the  island  is  bare 
rock,  and  the  vegetation  does  not 
approach  the  ordinary  level  of  high 
water,  the  storm-waves  keeping  the 
rocks  bare  far  above  and  behind  the 
smooth-water  level  of  high  tide. 
There  are  many  days  in  every  year 
when  it  is  impossible  to  land  on  the 
island  or  to  launch  a  boat  from  it. 
In  the  milder  half  of  the  year  the 
island  is  of  course  a  convenient  stop 
ping-place  for  offshore  fishermen,  for 
it  is  several  miles  nearer  the  fishing- 
grounds  than  the  harbors  of  Mount 
6 


JOHN    GILLEY 

Desert  proper.  In  the  first  years  of 
this  century  the  island  was  uninhab 
ited,  and  was  covered  by  a  growth  of 
good-sized  trees,  both  evergreen  and 
deciduous. 

About  the  year  1812,  William 
Gilley  of  Norwood's  Cove,  at  the 
foot  of  Somes  Sound  on  its  west 
side,  and  Hannah  Lurvey,  his  wife, 
decided  to  move  on  to  Baker's  Island 
with  their  three  little  children  and  all 
their  goods.  Up  to  that  time  he 
had  got  his  living  chiefly  on  fishing 
or  coasting  vessels ;  but,  like  most 
young  men  of  the  region,  he  was 
also  something  of  a  wood-cutter  and 
farmer.  He  and  his  wife  had  already 
accumulated  a  little  store  of  house 
hold  goods  and  implements,  and 
tools  for  fishing  and  farming.  They 


JOHN    GILLEY 

needed  no  money  wherewith  to  buy 
Baker's  Island.  There  it  lay  in  the 
sea,  unoccupied  and  unclaimed ;  and 
they  simply  took  possession  of  it. 

William  Gilley  was  a  large,  strong 
man,  six  feet  tall,  and  weighing  over 
two  hundred  pounds.  His  father 
is  said  to  have  come  from  Great 
Britain  at  fourteen  years  of  age. 
Hannah  Gilley  was  a  robust  woman, 
who  had  lived  in  Newburyport  and 
Byfield,  Massachusetts,  until  she  was 
thirteen  years  old,  and  had  there  had 
much  better  schooling  than  was  to 
be  had  on  the  island  of  Mount 
Desert.  She  was  able  to  teach  all 
her  children  to  read,  write,  and 
cipher;  and  all  her  life  she  valued 
good  reading,  and  encouraged  it 
in  her  family.  Her  father,  Jacob 
8 


JOHN    GILLEY 

Lurvey,  was  born  in  Gloucester, 
Massachusetts,  and  married  Hannah 
Boynton  of  Byfield.  The  name 
Lurvey  is  a  good  transliteration  of 
the  German  Loewe,  which  is  a 
common  name  among  German  Jews ; 
and  there  is  a  tradition  in  the  Lurvey 
family  that  the  first  Lurvey,  who 
emigrated  to  Massachusetts  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  was  of  Jewish 
descent  and  came  from  Archangel 
in  Russia.  It  is  noticeable  that 
many  of  the  Lurveys  have  Old 
Testament  names,  such  as  Reuben, 
Levi,  Samuel,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and 
that  their  noses  tend  to  be  aquiline. 
This  was  the  case  with  most  of  the 
children  of  William  and  Hannah 
Gilley.  The  father  of  Hannah  served 
in  the  Revolutionary  army  as  a  boy. 
9 


JOHN    GILLEY 

He  lived  to  the  age  of  ninety-two, 
and  had  ten  children  and  seventy- 
seven  grandchildren.  The  Lurveys 
are  therefore  still  numerous  at  South- 
West  Harbor  and  the  vicinity. 

For  William  Gilley  the  enterprise 
of  taking  possession  of  Baker's  Island 
involved  much  heavy  labor,  but  few 
unaccustomed  risks.  For  Hannah, 
his  wife,  it  was  different.  She  al 
ready  had  three  little  children,  and 
she  was  going  to  face  for  herself 
and  her  family  a  formidable  isolation 
which  was  absolute  for  considerable 
periods  in  the  year.  Moreover,  she 
was  going  to  take  her  share  in  the 
severe  labors  of  a  pioneering  family. 
Even  to  get  a  footing  on  this  wooded 
island — to  land  lumber,  live  stock, 
provisions,  and  the  implements  of 

10 


JOHN    GILLEY 

labor,  and  to  build  the  first  shelter 
—  was  no  easy  task.  A  small,  rough 
beach  of  large  stones  was  the  only 
landing-place,  and  just  above  the 
bare  rocks  of  the  shore  was  the 
forest.  However,  health,  strength, 
and  fortitude  were  theirs ;  and  in  a 
few  years  they  had  established  them 
selves  on  the  island  in  considerable 
comfort.  Nine  more  children  were 
born  to  them  there;  so  that  they 
ultimately  had  a  family  of  twelve 
children,  of  whom  six  were  sons  and 
six  daughters.  All  these  children 
grew  to  maturity.  Fortunately,  the 
eldest  child  was  a  girl,  for  it  was  the 
mother  that  most  needed  help.  Three 
of  the  children  are  still  (1899)  living, 
two  of  them  over  eighty  years  of  age 
and  one  over  ninety.  Nine  of  the 


ii 


JOHN    GILLEY 

twelve  children  married,  and  to  them 
were  born  fifty-eight  children,  of 
whom  forty-five  are  still  living. 

John  Gilley  was  the  tenth  child 
and  also  the  youngest  son,  and  when 
he  was  born  the  family  had  already 
been  ten  years  on  the  island,  and  had 
transformed  it  into  a  tolerable  farm. 
When  he  began  to  look  about  him, 
his  father  was  keeping  about  six  cows, 
a  yoke  of  oxen,  two  or  three  young 
cattle,  about  fifty  sheep,  and  three 
or  four  hogs.  Several  of  the  chil 
dren  were  already  contributing  by 
their  labor  to  the  support  of  the 
family.  The  girls,  by  the  time  they 
were  twelve  years  old,  were  real 
helpers  for  the  mother.  They  tended 
the  poultry,  made  butter,  and  spun 
wool.  The  boys  naturally  helped  in 

12 


JOHN    GILLEY 

the  work  of  the  father.  He,  unaided 
except  by  his  boys,  had  cleared  a 
considerable  portion  of  the  island, 
burning  up  in  so  doing  a  fine  growth 
of  trees  —  spruce,  fir,  birch,  and  beech. 
With  his  oxen  he  had  broken  up  the 
cleared  land,  hauled  off  part  of  the 
stones  and  piled  them  on  the  pro 
truding  ledges,  and  gradually  made 
fields  for  grass  and  other  crops.  In 
the  earlier  years,  before  flour  began 
to  be  cheap  at  the  Mount  Desert 
"  stores,"  he  had  even  raised  a  little 
wheat  on  the  island;  but  the  main 
crops  besides  hay  were  potatoes  and 
other  vegetables  for  the  use  of  the 
family  and  cattle.  The  son  is  still 
living  who  carried  a  boat-load  of 
wheat  to  Somesville,  had  it  ground 
and  sifted  into  three  grades,  and  car- 


JOHN    GILLEY 

ried  all  three  back  to  the  island  for 
winter  use.  The  potato-bug  and 
potato-rot  were  then  unknown,  and 
the  island  yielded  any  wished-for 
amount  of  potatoes.  The  family 
often  dug  from  two  to  three  hundred 
bushels  of  potatoes  in  a  season,  and 
fed  what  they  did  not  want  to  their 
cattle  and  hogs. 

Food  at  the  island  was  habitually 
abundant.  It  was  no  trouble  to  get 
lobsters.  No  traps  were  needed; 
they  could  be  picked  up  in  the  shal 
low  water  along  the  rocky  shore. 
Fresh  fish  were  always  to  be  easily 
procured,  except  in  stormy  weather 
and  in  cold  and  windy  February  and 
March.  A  lamb  could  be  killed  at 
any  time  in  the  summer.  In  the 
fall,  in  sorting  the  flock  of  sheep, 
14 


JOHN    GILLEY 

the  family  killed  from  ten  to  fifteen 
sheep ;  and  what  they  could  not  use 
as  fresh  mutton  they  salted.     Later 
in    the    season,    when    the    weather 
turned    cold,    they    killed   a   "beef- 
critter,"  and  sometimes  two  when  the 
family  grew  large.      Part  of  this  beef 
was  salted,  but  part  was  kept  frozen 
throughout    the    winter    to    be  used 
fresh.     Sea-birds  added  to  their  store 
of  food.     Shooting  them  made  sport 
for  the  boys.     Ducks  and  other  sea- 
fowl    were    so    abundant    in  the  fall 
that  the  gunners  had  to  throw  away 
the  bodies  of  the  birds,  after  picking 
off  all    the    feathers.       The    family 
never    bought    any    salt    pork,    but 
every  winter   made  a  year's  supply. 
Although  codfish  were  easily  acces 
sible,  the  family  made  no  use  of  salt 
'5 


JOHN    GILLEY 

cod.  They  preferred  mackerel,  which 
were  to  be  taken  in  the  near  waters 
in  some  month  of  every  year.  They 
had  a  few  nets,  but  they  also  caught 
mackerel  on  the  hook.  During  the 
summer  and  early  autumn  the  family 
had  plenty  of  fresh  vegetables. 

For  clothing  the  family  depended 
mostly  on  wool  from  their  own  sheep. 
They  used  very  little  cotton.  There 
were  spinning-wheels  and  looms  in 
the  house,  and  the  mother  both  spun 
and  wove.  Flax  they  raised  on  the 
island,  and  from  it  made  a  coarse 
kind  of  linen,  chiefly  for  towels. 
They  did,  however,  buy  a  cotton 
warp,  and  filled  it  with  wool,  thus 
making  a  comfortable  sort  of  sheet 
for  winter  use  or  light  blanket  for 
summer.  The  wool  of  at  least  fifty 
16 


JOHN    GILLEY 

sheep  was  used  every  year  in  the 
household,  when  the  family  had 
grown  large.  The  children  all  went 
barefoot  the  greater  part  of  the  year ; 
but  in  the  winter  they  wore  shoes  or 
boots,  the  eldest  brother  having 
learned  enough  of  the  shoemaker's 
art  to  keep  the  family  supplied  with 
footwear  in  winter.  At  that  time 
there  were  no  such  things  as  rubber 
boots,  and  the  family  did  not  expect 
to  have  dry  feet. 

Their  uses  for  money  were  few ; 
but  some  essentials  to  comfort  they 
must  procure  at  the  store,  seven  miles 
away,  at  South- West  Harbor,  in 
return  for  money  or  its  equivalent. 
Their  available  resources  for  procur 
ing  money  were  very  much  like  those 
of  similar  families  to-day  in  the  same 


JOHN    GILLEY 

neighborhood.  They  could  sell  or 
exchange  butter  and  eggs  at  the  store, 
and  they  could  sell  in  Boston  dried 
fish  and  feathers.  One  of  John's 
elder  brothers  shot  birds  enough 
in  a  single  year  to  yield  over  a  hun 
dredweight  of  feathers,  worth  fifty 
cents  a  pound  in  Boston.  The 
family  shipped  their  feathers  to 
Boston  every  year  by  a  coasting 
vessel ;  and  this  product  represented 
men's  labor,  whereas  the  butter  and 
eggs  represented  chiefly  the  women's 
labor.  The  butter  was  far  the  best 
of  the  cash  resources ;  and  so  it  re 
mains  to  this  day  in  these  islands. 
It  sold  in  the  vicinity  at  twelve  and 
a  half  cents  a  pound.  There  was 
one  other  source  of  money,  namely, 
smoked  herring.  The  herring  which 
18 


JOHN    GILLEY 

abound  in  these  waters  had  at  that 
time  no  value  for  bait;  but  smoked 
herring  could  be  sold  in  New  York, 
which  was  the  best  market  for  them, 
at  from  seventy-five  cents  to  one 
dollar  and  ten  cents  a  box,  each  box 
holding  half  a  bushel.  The  herring 
were  caught,  for  the  most  part,  in 
gill-nets ;  for  there  were  then  no  weirs 
and  no  seines.  The  family  had  their 
own  smoke-house,  and  made  the 
boxes  themselves  from  lumber  which 
was  sawed  for  them  at  the  Somesville 
or  the  Duck  Brook  saw-mill.  Each 
of  these  saw-mills  was  at  least  nine 
miles  distant  from  Baker's  Island ; 
so  that  it  was  a  serious  undertaking, 
requiring  favorable  weather,  to  boat 
the  lumber  from  the  mill  and  land  it 
safely  at  the  rough  home  beach. 


JOHN    GILLEY 

The  family  nailed  the  boxes  together, 
out  of  the  sawed  lumber  in  the  early 
fall,  and  packed  them  with  the  fra 
grant  fish;  and  then  some  coasting 
vessel,  usually  a  schooner  owned  in 
a  neighboring  island,  carried  the  fin 
ished  product  to  distant  New  York, 
and  brought  back,  after  a  month  or 
two,  clear  cash  to  pay  for  the  winter's 
stores. 

In  this  large  and  united  family  the 
boys  stayed  at  home  and  worked  for 
their  parents  until  they  were  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  and  the  girls  stayed 
at  home  until  they  were  married  and 
had  homes  of  their  own  or  had  come 
of  age.  All  the  boys  and  three  of 
the  girls  were  ultimately  married. 
The  three  girls  who  did  not  marry 
went  away  from  home  to  earn  money 
20 


JOHN    GILLEY 

by  household  labor,  factory  work, 
nursing,  or  sewing.  It  was  not  all 
work  for  the  children  on  the  island, 
or,  indeed,  for  the  father  and  mother. 
In  the  long  winter  evenings  they 
played  checkers  and  fox  and  geese; 
and  the  mother  read  to  the  family  ' 
until  the  children  grew  old  enough 
to  take  their  share  in  reading  aloud. 
Out  of  doors  they  played  ball,  and 
in  winter  coasted  on  the  snow.  The 
boys,  as  soon  as  they  were  ten  or 
twelve  years  of  age,  were  in  and  out 
of  boats  much  of  the  time,  and  so 
attained  that  quick,  instinctive  use 
of  oar,  sail,  and  tiller  in  which  lies 
safety.  When  they  grew  older  they 
had  the  sport  of  gunning,  with  the 
added  interest  of  profit  from  the 
feathers.  Their  domestic  animals 

21 


JOHN    GILLEY 

were  a  great  interest  as  well  as  a 
great  care.  Then,  they  always  had 
before  them  some  of  the  most  splen 
did  aspects  of  nature.  From  their 
sea-girt  dwelling  they  could  see  the 
entire  hemisphere  of  the  sky ;  and 
to  the  north  lay  the  grand  hills  of 
Mount  Desert,  with  outline  clear 
and  sharp  when  the  northwest  wind 
blew,  but  dim  and  soft  when  south 
erly  winds  prevailed.  In  every 
storm  a  magnificent  surf  dashed  up 
on  the  rockbound  isle.  In  winter 
the  low  sun  made  the  sea  toward  the 
south  a  sheet  of  shimmering  silver  ; 
and  all  the  year  an  endless  variety 
of  colors,  shades,  and  textures  played 
over  the  surfaces  of  hills  and  sea. 
The  delight  in  such  visions  is  often 
but  half  conscious  in  persons  who 


22 


JOHN    GILLEY 

have  not  the  habit  of  reflection ; 
but  it  is  nevertheless  a  real  source 
of  happiness,  which  is  soon  missed 
when  one  brought  up  amid  such 
pure  and  noble  scenes  is  set  down 
among  the  straitened,  squalid,  ugly 
sights  of  a  city.  On  the  whole,  the 
survivors  of  that  isolated  family  look 
back  on  their  childhood  as  a  happy 
one  ;  and  they  feel  a  strong  sense  of 
obligation  to  the  father  and  mother 
—  particularly  to  the  mother,  because 
she  was  a  person  of  excellent  fac 
ulties  and  an  intellectual  outlook. 
Like  most  of  her  people  for  two 
generations,  she  was  a  member  of 
the  Congregational  Church  ;  and  in 
the  summer-time  she  took  the  eldest 
children  nearly  every  Sunday  in  mild 
weather  to  the  church  at  South-West 
23 


JOHN    GILLEY 

Harbor,  going  seven  miles  each  way 
in  an  open  boat.  To  be  sure,  the 
minister  taught  that  hell  was  paved 
with  infants'  skulls,  and  descriptions 
of  hell-fire  and  the  undying  worm 
formed  an  important  part  of  every 
discourse.  Some  of  the  children  sup 
posed  themselves  to  accept  what  they 
heard  at  church  ;  but  the  mother  did 
not.  She  bought  books  and  read  for 
herself;  and  by  the  time  she  had 
borne  half  a  dozen  children  she  could 
no  longer  accept  the  old  beliefs,  and 
became  a  Universalist,  to  which  more 
cheerful  faith  she  adhered  till  her 
death. 

It  is  obvious  that  this   family  on 

its  island    domain   was    much    more 

self-contained  and  independent  than 

any  ordinary  family  is  to-day,  even 

24 


JOHN    GILLEY 

under  similar  circumstances.  They 
got  their  fuel,  food,  and  clothing  as 
products  of  their  own  skill  and  labor, 
their  supplies  and  resources  being 
almost  all  derived  from  the  sea  and 
from  their  own  fields  and  woods. 
In  these  days  of  one  crop  on  a  farm, 
one  trade  for  a  man,  and  factory 
labor  for  whole  families,  it  is  not 
probable  that  there  exists  a  single 
American  family  which  is  so  little 
dependent  on  exchange  of  products, 
or  on  supplies  resulting  from  the 
labor  of  others,  as  was  the  family  of 
William  and  Hannah  Gilley  from 
1812  to  1842.  It  should  also  be 
observed  that  sea-shore  people  have 
a  considerable  advantage  in  bringing 
up  boys,  because  boys  who  become 
good  boatmen  must  have  had  an  ad- 
25 


JOHN    GILLEY 

mirable  training  in  alertness,  prompt 
decision,  resource  in  emergencies, 
and  courageous  steadiness  in  diffi 
culties  and  dangers.  The  shore 
fisherman  or  lobsterman  on  the 
coast  of  Maine,  often  going  miles 
to  sea  alone  in  a  half-decked  boat,  is 
liable  to  all  sorts  of  vexatious  or  for 
midable  weather  changes  —  in  sum 
mer  to  fog,  calms,  and  squalls,  in 
winter  to  low-lying  icy  vapor,  blind 
ing  snow,  and  the  sudden  north 
wester  at  zero,  against  which  he  must 
beat  homeward  with  the  flying  spray 
freezing  fast  to  hull,  sails,  and  rig 
ging.  The  youth  who  learns  to 
wring  safety  and  success  out  of  such 
adverse  conditions  has  been  taught 
by  these  struggles  with  nature  to 
be  vigilant,  patient,  self-reliant,  and 
26 


JOHN    GILLEY 

brave.  In  these  temperate  regions 
the  adverse  forces  of  nature  are  not, 
as  they  sometimes  are  in  the  tropics, 
irresistible  and  overwhelming.  They 
can  be  resisted  and  overcome  by 
man ;  and  so  they  develop  in  suc 
cessive  generations  some  of  the  best 
human  qualities. 

It  resulted  from  the  principles  in 
which  the  children  had  been  brought 
up  that  no  one  of  the  boys  began  to 
save  much  of  anything  for  himself 
until  he  was  twenty-one  years  of  age. 
It  was  therefore  1843  before  John 
Gilley  began  to  earn  money  on 
his  own  account.  Good  health,  a 
strong  body,  skill  as  a  sailor,  and 
some  knowledge  of  farming,  stock- 
raising,  and  fishing,  he  had  acquired. 
In  what  way  should  he  now  begin  to 
27 


JOHN    GILLEY 

use  these  acquisitions  for  his  own 
advantage  ?  A  fortunate  change  in 
his  father's  occupation  fifteen  years 
before  probably  facilitated  John's 
entrance  on  a  career  of  his  own.  Wil 
liam  Gilley  had  been  appointed  light- 
keeper  in  1828,  with  a  compensation 
of  three  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a 
year  in  money,  the  free  occupation 
of  a  house,  and  all  the  sperm-oil  he 
could  use  in  his  household.  He 
held  this  place  until  the  year  1849, 
when,  on  the  coming  into  power  of 
the  Whig  party,  he  was  turned  out 
and  a  Whig  was  appointed  in  his 
place.  Perhaps  in  recognition  of  his 
long  service,  it  was  considerately  sug 
gested  to  him  that  he  might  retain 
his  position  if  he  should  see  fit  to 
join  the  dominant  party  ;  but  to  this 
28 


JOHN    GILLEY 

overture  he  replied,  with  some  ex 
pletives,  that  he  would  not  change 
his  political  connection  for  all  the 
lighthouses  in  the  United  States. 
Now,  three  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
a  year  in  cash,  besides  house  and 
light,  was  a  fortune  to  any  coast-of- 
Maine  family  seventy  years  ago,  — 
indeed,  it  still  is, —  and  William 
Gilley  undoubtedly  was  able  to  lay 
up  some  portion  of  it,  besides  im 
proving  his  buildings,  live  stock, 
boats,  tools,  and  household  furniture. 
From  these  savings  the  father  was 
able  to  furnish  a  little  money  to  start 
his  sons  each  in  his  own  career.  This 
father  was  himself  an  irrepressible 
pioneer,  always  ready  for  a  new  en 
terprise.  In  1837,  long  before  he 
was  turned  out  of  the  lighthouse,  he 
29 


JOHN    GILLEY 

bought  for  three  hundred  dollars 
Great  Duck  Island,  an  uninhabited 
Island  about  five  miles  southwest  of 
Baker's  Island,  and  even  more  diffi 
cult  of  access,  his  project  being  to 
raise  live  stock  there.  Shortly  after 
he  ceased  to  be  light-keeper,  when 
he  was  about  sixty-three  years  old, 
and  his  youngest  children  were  grown 
up,  he  went  to  live  on  Great  Duck, 
and  there  remained  almost  alone 
until  he  was  nearly  eighty  years  of 
age.  His  wife  Hannah  had  become 
somewhat  infirm,  and  was  unable  to 
do  more  than  make  him  occasional 
visits  on  Duck  Island.  She  died  at 
sixty-nine,  but  he  lived  to  be  ninety- 
two.  Each  lived  in  their  declining 
years  with  one  of  their  married  sons, 
Hannah  on  Little  Cranberry  and 
30 


JOHN    GILLEY 

William  on  Baker's.  Such  is  the 
natural  mode  of  taking  care  of 
old  parents  in  a  community  where 
savings  are  necessarily  small  and  only 
the  able-bodied  can  really  earn  their 
livelihood. 

John  Gilley's  first  venture  was  the 
purchase  of  a  part  of  a  small  coast 
ing  schooner  called  the  Preference, 
which  could  carry  about  one  hun 
dred  tons,  and  cost  between  eight 
and  nine  hundred  dollars.  He  be 
came  responsible  for  one-third  of 
her  value,  paying  down  one  or  two 
hundred  dollars,  which  his  father 
probably  lent  him.  For  the  rest  of 
the  third  he  obtained  credit  for  a 
short  time  from  the  seller  of  the 
vessel.  The  other  two  owners  were 
men  who  belonged  on  Great  Cran- 
31 


JOHN    GILLEY 

berry  Island.  The  owners  pro 
ceeded  to  use  their  purchase  during 
all  the  mild  weather  —  perhaps  six 
months  of  each  year  —  in  carrying 
paving-stones  to  Boston.  These 
stones,  unlike  the  present  rectangular 
granite  blocks,  were  smooth  cobble 
stones  picked  up  on  the  outside 
beaches  of  the  neighboring  islands. 
They  of  course  were  not  found  on 
any  inland  or  smooth-water  beaches, 
but  only  where  heavy  waves  rolled 
the  beach-stones  up  and  down.  The 
crew  of  the  Preference  must  therefore 
anchor  her  off  an  exposed  beach,  and 
then,  with  a  large  dory,  boat  off  to 
her  the  stones  which  they  picked  up 
by  hand.  This  work  was  possible 
only  during  moderate  weather.  The 
stones  must  be  of  tolerably  uniform 
32 


JOHN    GILLEY 

size,  neither  too  large  nor  too  small  ; 
and  each  one  had  to  be  selected  by 
the  eye  and  picked  up  by  the  hand. 
When  the  dory  was  loaded,  it  had 
to  be  lifted  off  the  beach  by  the  men 
standing  in  the  water,  and  rowed  out 
to  the  vessel  ;  and  there  every  single 
stone  had  to  be  picked  up  by  hand 
and  thrown  on  to  the  vessel.  A 
hundred  tons  having  been  thus  got 
aboard  by  sheer  hard  work  of  human 
muscle,  the  old  craft,  which  was  not 
too  seaworthy,  was  sailed  to  Boston,  to 
be  discharged  at  what  was  then  called 
the  "  Stone  Wharf"  in  Charlestown. 
There  the  crew  threw  the  stones  out 
of  her  hold  on  to  the  wharf  by  hand. 
They  therefore  lifted  and  threw  these 
hundred  tons  of  stone  three  times  at 
least  before  they  were  deposited  on 
3  33 


JOHN    GILLEY 

the  city's  wharf.  The  cobblestones 
were  the  main  freight  of  the  vessel ; 
but  she  also  carried  dried  fish  to 
Boston,  and  fetched  back  goods  to 
the  island  stores  of  the  vicinity. 
Some  of  the  island  people  bought 
their  flour,  sugar,  dry-goods,  and 
other  family  stores  in  Boston  through 
the  captain  of  the  schooner.  John 
Gilley  soon  began  to  go  as  captain, 
being  sometimes  accompanied  by  the 
other  owners  and  sometimes  by  men 
on  wages.  He  was  noted  among  his 
neighbors  for  the  care  and  good 
judgment  with  which  he  executed 
their  various  commissions,  and  he 
knew  himself  to  be  trusted  by  them. 
This  business  he  followed  for  several 
years,  paid  off  his  debt  to  the  seller 
of  the  schooner,  and  began  to  lay  up 
34 


JOHN    GILLEY 

money.  It  was  an  immense  satis 
faction  to  him  to  feel  himself  thus 
established  in  an  honest  business 
which  he  understood,  and  in  which 
he  was  making  his  way.  There  are 
few  solider  satisfactions  to  be  won  in 
this  world  by  anybody,  in  any  con 
dition  of  life.  The  scale  of  the  busi 
ness  —  large  or  small  —  makes  little 
difference  in  the  measure  of  content. 
At  that  time  —  about  1 843  to 
1850  —  there  were  very  few  guides 
to  navigation  between  Mount  Des 
ert  and  Boston  compared  with  the 
numerous  marks  that  the  govern 
ment  now  maintains.  Charts  were 
lacking,  and  the  government  had 
issued  no  coast-pilot.  Blunt*  s 
"Coast-Pilot"  was  the  only  book  in 
use  among  the  coastwise  navigators, 
35 


JOHN    GILLEY 

and  its  description  of  the  coast  of 
Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Mas 
sachusetts  was  very  incomplete, 
though  tolerably  accurate  in  the  few 
most  important  regions.  It  was 
often  anxious  business  for  the  young 
owners  of  an  old,  uninsured  vessel  to 
encounter  the  various  weather  of  the 
New  England  coast  between  the  first 
of  April  and  the  first  of  December. 
Their  all  and  sometimes  their  lives 
were  at  stake  on  their  own  prudence, 
knowledge,  and  skill.  None  of 
them  had  knowledge  of  navigation 
in  the  technical  sense ;  they  were 
coasting  sailors  only,  who  found 
their  way  from  point  to  point  along 
the  shore  by  practice,  keen  observa 
tion,  and  good  memory  for  objects 
once  seen  and  courses  once  safely 

36 


JOHN    GILLEY 

steered.  The  young  man  who  can 
do  this  work  successfully  has  some 
good  grounds  for  self-respect.  At 
this  business  John  Gilley  laid  up 
several  hundred  dollars.  In  a  few 
years  he  was  able  to  sell  the  Pref 
erence  and  buy  half  of  a  much  better 
vessel  called  the  Express.  She  was 
larger,  younger,  and  a  better  sailer, 
and  cost  her  purchasers  between  fif 
teen  and  sixteen  hundred  dollars. 
He  followed  the  same  business  in 
the  Express  for  several  years  more, 
laying  her  up  in  the  late  autumn  and 
fitting  her  out  again  every  spring. 
The  winters  he  generally  spent  with 
his  father  and  mother,  or  with  one 
of  his  married  brothers  ;  but  even  in 
such  periods  of  comparative  repose 
he  kept  busy,  and  was  always  trying 
37 


JOHN    GILLEY 

to  make  a  little  money.  He  was 
fond  of  gunning,  and  liked  it  all  the 
better  because  it  yielded  feathers  for 
sale.  In  December,  1853,  he  was 
staying  with  his  brother  Samuel  Gil- 
ley  on  Little  Cranberry  Island,  and 
gunning  as  usual ;  but  his  brother 
observed  that  he  did  not  sell  the 
feathers  which  he  assiduously  collec 
ted.  That  winter  there  was  a  school 
teacher  from  Sullivan  on  Little 
Cranberry,  who  seemed  to  be  an 
intelligent  and  pleasing  girl.  He 
made  no  remarks  on  the  subject  to  his 
brother ;  but  that  brother  decided 
that  John  was  looking  for  a  wife 
—  or,  as  this  brother  expressed  it  at 
the  age  of  eighty-two,  "John  was 
thinking  of  looking  out  for  the 
woman;  he  saved  his  feathers  —  and 
38 


JOHN    GILLEY 

actions  speak  louder  than  words." 
Moreover,  he  sold  his  vessel  at 
Rockland,  and  found  himself  in  pos 
session  of  nine  or  ten  hundred  dollars 
in  money,  the  product  of  patient 
industry,  and  not  the  result  of  draw 
ing  a  prize  or  two  in  the  fishing  lot 
tery.  In  the  following  spring  he 
went  with  six  or  seven  other  men,  in 
a  low  priced  fishing-vessel  of  about 
thirty-five  tons  which  his  brother 
Samuel  and  he  had  bought,  up  the 
Bay  of  Fundy  and  to  the  banks  be 
tween  Mount  Desert  and  Cape  Sable, 
fishing  for  cod  and  haddock.  Every 
fortnight  or  three  weeks  the  brothers 
came  home  to  land  their  fish  and 
get  supplies ;  but  the  schoolmistress 
had  gone  home  to  Sullivan.  Dur 
ing  that  spring  John  Gilley  crossed 
39 


JOHN    GILLEY 

more  than  once  to  Sutton'  s  Island, 
an  island  about  a  mile  long,  which 
lies  between  the  Cranberry  Islands 
and  the  island  of  Mount  Desert, 
with  its  long  axis  lying  nearly  east 
and  west.  On  this  island  he  bought, 
that  season,  a  rough,  neglected  farm 
of  about  fifty  acres,  on  which  stood 
a  house  and  barn.  It  was  a  great 
undertaking  to  put  the  buildings 
into  habitable  condition  and  clear  up 
and  improve  the  few  arable  fields. 
But  John  Gilley  looked  forward  to 
the  task  with  keen  interest  and  a 
good  hope,  and  he  had  the  definite 
purpose  of  providing  here  a  perma 
nent  home  for  himself  and  a  wife. 

When  cold  weather  put  an  end  to 
the  fishing  season,  John  Gilley,  hav 
ing  provided  all  necessary  articles  for 
40 


JOHN    GILLEY 

his  house,  sailed  over  to  Sullivan, 
distant  about  eighteen  miles,  in  his 
fishing-vessel  and  brought  back  to 
the  home  on  Button's  Island  Harriet 
Bickford  Wilkinson,  the  schoolmis 
tress  from  Sullivan.  The  grandfather 
of  Harriet  Wilkinson  came  to  Sulli 
van  from  Portsmouth,  New  Hamp 
shire,  in  1769,  and  her  mother's 
family  came  from  York,  Maine. 
The  marriage  took  place  on  Decem 
ber  25,  1854,  when  John  was  thirty- 
two  and  Harriet  was  twenty-five; 
and  both  entered  with  joy  upon  mar 
ried  life  at  their  own  island  farm. 
She  was  a  pretty  woman,  but  delicate, 
belonging  to  a  family  which  was 
thought  to  have  a  tendency  to  con 
sumption.  In  the  summer  of  1855 
he  spent  about  half  his  time  on 
41 


JOHN    GILLEY 

this  same  vessel  which  had  brought 
home  his  wife,  and  made  a  fair  profit 
on  the  fishing ;  and  the  next  year 
he  sometimes  went  on  short  trips  of 
shore  fishing,  but  that  was  the  last  of 
his  going  away  from  the  farm. 
Whatever  fishing  he  did  afterward  he 
did  in  an  open  boat  not  far  from 
home,  and  he  went  coasting  no  more. 
A  son  was  born  to  them,  but  lived 
only  seven  months ;  and  soon  the 
wife's  health  began  to  fail.  A  wife's 
sickness,  in  the  vast  majority  of  fam 
ilies,  means  first,  the  loss  of  her 
labor  in  the  care  and  support  of  the 
household,  and  secondly,  the  neces 
sity  of  hiring  some  woman  to  do  the 
work  which  the  wife  cannot  do. 
This  necessity  of  hiring  is  a  heavy 
burden  in  a  family  where  little  money 
42 


JOHN    GILLEY 

is  earned,  although  there  may  be 
great  comfort  so  far  as  food,  fire,  and 
clothing  are  concerned.  His  young 
wife  continuing  to  grow  worse,  John 
Gilley  tried  all  means  that  were  pos 
sible  to  him  to  restore  her  health. 
He  consulted  the  neighboring  physi 
cians,  bought  quantities  of  medicine 
in  great  variety,  and  tried  in  every 
way  that  love  or  duty  could  suggest 
to  avert  the  threatening  blow.  It 
was  all  in  vain.  Harriet  Gilley 
lived  only  two  years  and  a  half  after 
her  marriage,  dying  in  June,  1857. 
At  this  period,  his  expenses  being 
large,  and  his  earning  power  re 
duced,  John  Gilley  was  forced  to 
borrow  a  little  money.  The  farm 
and  the  household  equipment  had 
absorbed  his  whole  capital. 
43 


JOHN    GILLEY 

On  April  27,  1857,  there  came 
from  Sullivan,  to  take  care  of  Har 
riet,  Mary  Jane  Wilkinson,  her 
cousin.  This  cousin  was  only  twenty- 
one  years  of  age ;  but  her  father 
was  dead,  and  her  mother  had  mar 
ried  again.  She  had  helped  her 
mother  till  she  was  almost  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  but  now  felt  free. 
Until  this  cousin  came,  nieces  and  a 
sister  of  John  Gilley  had  helped  him 
to  take  care  of  his  dying  wife.  The 
women  relatives  must  always  come  to 
the  aid  of  a  family  thus  distressed. 
To  help  in  taking  care  of  the  farm 
and  in  fishing,  John  Gilley  habitu 
ally  hired  a  man  all  through  the  sea 
son,  and  this  season  of  1857  the 
hired  man  was  his  wife's  brother. 
When  Harriet  Gilley  died,  there 
44 


JOHN    GILLEY 

was  still  the  utmost  need  of  a  woman 
on  the  farm ;  so  Mary  Jane  Wil 
kinson  stayed  during  the  summer 
and  through  the  next  winter,  and 
before  the  end  of  that  winter  she  had 
promised  to  marry  John  Gilley. 
There  were  at  that  time  eight  houses 
on  Button's  Island,  and  more  perma 
nent  residents  than  there  are  now. 
Mary  Jane  Wilkinson  was  fond  of 
the  care  of  animals  and  of  farm 
duties  in  general.  She  found  at  the 
farm  only  twelve  hens,  a  cow,  and  a 
calf,  and  she  set  to  work  at  once  to 
increase  the  quantity  of  live  stock  ; 
but  in  April,  1858,  she  returned  to 
her  mother's  house  at  West  Goulds- 
boro',  that  she  might  prepare  her 
wardrobe  and  some  articles  of  house 
hold  linen.  When,  later  in  the  sea- 
45 


JOHN    GILLEY 

son,  John  Gilley  came  after  Mary 
Jane  Wilkinson  at  Jones's  Cove,  he 
had  to  transport  to  Sutton's  Island, 
besides  Mary  Jane's  personal  posses 
sions,  a  pair  of  young  steers,  a  pig, 
and  a  cat.  They  were  married  at 
North-East  Harbor  by  Squire  Kim- 
ball,  in  the  old  tavern  on  the  west 
side  of  the  harbor,  in  July,  1858; 
and  then  these  two  set  about  improv 
ing  their  condition  by  unremitting 
industry  and  frugality,  and  an  intelli 
gent  use  of  every  resource  the  place 
afforded.  The  new  wife  gave  her 
attention  to  the  poultry  and  made 
butter  whenever  the  milk  could  not 
be  sold  as  such.  The  price  of  but 
ter  had  greatly  improved  since  John 
Gilley  was  a  boy  on  Baker's  Island. 
It  could  now  be  sold  at  from  twenty 
46 


JOHN    GILLEY 

to  twenty-five  cents  a  pound.  In 
summer  Squire  Kimball,  at  the  tav 
ern,  bought  their  milk.  All  sum 
mer  eggs  could  be  sold  at  the  stores 
on  the  neighboring  islands ;  but  in 
the  fall  it  was  necessary  to  send 
them  to  Boston.  During  the  fish 
ing  season  the  husband  frequently 
went  for  fish  in  an  open  boat  with 
one  sail ;  but  he  no  longer  absented 
himself  from  home  for  weeks  at  a 
time.  His  labor  on  the  farm  was 
incessant.  On  the  crest  of  the 
island  a  small  field  had  been  cleared 
by  the  former  occupant  of  the  house. 
With  the  help  of  a  yoke  of  oxen 
John  Gilley  proceeded  to  add  to 
this  field  on  the  east  and  on  the 
west.  The  piles  of  stones  which  he 
heaped  up  on  the  bare  ledges  remain 
47 


JOHN    GILLEY 

to  this  day  to  testify  to  his  industry. 
One  of  them  is  twenty-four  feet  long, 
fifteen  feet  wide,  and  five  feet  high. 
In  after  years  he  was  proud  of  these 
piles,  regarding  them  as  monuments 
to  his  patient  industry  and  persever 
ance  in  the  redemption,  or  rather 
creation,  of  this  precious  mowing- 
field. 

In  these  labors  three  or  four  years 
passed  away,  when  the  Civil  War 
broke  out,  and  soon,  linseed-oil 
becoming  scarce,  porgy-oil  attained  an 
unheard  of  value.  Fortunately  for 
the  New  England  shore  people,  the 
porgies  arrived  in  shoals  on  the  coast 
in  every  season  for  rather  more  than 
ten  years.  At  various  places  along 
the  shore  from  Long  Island  Sound 
to  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  large  factories 
48 


JOHN    GILLEY 

were  built  for  expressing  the  oil  from 
these  fish ;  but  this  was  an  industry 
which  could  also  be  well  conducted 
on  a  small  scale  with  a  few  nets,  a 
big  kettle,  and  a  screw-press  worked 
by  hand.  For  an  enterprising  and 
energetic  man  here  was  a  new  chance 
of  getting  profit  from  the  sea. 
Accordingly,  John  Gilley,  like 
thousands  of  other  fishermen  along 
the  New  England  coast,  set  up  a 
small  porgy-oil  factory,  and  during 
the  porgy  season  this  was  his  most 
profitable  form  of  industry.  During 
the  last  part  of  the  war  porgy-oil 
sold  at  a  dollar  or  even  a  dollar  and 
ten  cents  a  gallon.  The  chum,  or 
refuse  from  the  press,  was  a  valuable 
element  in  manure.  All  of  John 
Gilley's  porgy-chum  went  to  enrich 
4  49 


JOHN    GILLEY 

his  precious  fields.  We  may  be 
sure  that  this  well-used  opportunity 
gave  him  great  satisfaction. 

The  farm,  like  most  farms  on  the 
Maine  shore,  not  sufficing  for  the 
comfortable  support  of  his  family, 
John  Gilley  was  always  looking  for 
another  industry  by  which  he  could 
add  to  his  annual  income.  He 
found  such  an  industry  in  the  manu 
facture  of  smoked  herringa  This 
was  at  that  time  practised  in  two  ways 
among  the  island  people.  Fresh 
herring  were  caught  near  home,  and 
were  immediately  corned  and  smoked; 
and  salted  herring  brought  from  the 
Magdalen  Islands  were  bought  by 
the  vessel -load,  soaked  in  fresh  water 
to  remove  a  part  of  the  salt,  and  then 
smoked.  John  Gilley  built  a  large 


JOHN    GILLEY 

smoke-house  on  his  shore  close  to 
a  safe  and  convenient  anchorage,  and 
there  pursued  the  herring  business 
in  both  forms,  whenever  supplies  of 
herring  could  be  obtained.  This  is 
an  industry  in  which  women  can  bear 
a  part.  They  can  pull  out  the  gills 
and  string  the  wet  fish  on  the  sticks 
by  which  they  are  hung  up  in  the 
smoke-house  ;  and  they  can  pack  the 
dried  fish  into  the  boxes  in  which 
they  are  marketed.  So  the  wife  and 
the  eldest  daughter,  as  time  went  on, 
took  a  hand  in  this  herring  work. 
The  sawed  lumber  for  the  boxes  was 
all  brought  from  the  saw-mill  at  the 
head  of  Somes  Sound,  eight  miles 
away..  The  men  did  that  transpor 
tation,  and  nailed  the  boxes  together. 
It  was  characteristic  of  John  Gilley 


JOHN    GILLEY 

that  he  always  took  pains  to  have 
his  things  better  than  anybody  else's. 
He  was  careful  and  particular  about 
all  his  work,  and  thoroughly  believed 
in  the  good  results  of  this  painstak 
ing  care.  He  was  always  confident 
that  his  milk,  butter,  eggs,  fowls, 
porgy-oil,  and  herring  were  better 
than  the  common,  and  were  worth 
a  higher  price ;  and  he  could  often 
induce  purchasers  to  think  so,  too. 

Of  the  second  marriage  there  came 
three  girls,  who  all  grew  to  maturity, 
and  two  of  whom  were  married  in 
due  season  ;  but  when  John  Gilley 
was  seventy-four  years  old  he  had 
but  two  grandchildren,  of  whom  the 
elder  was  only  eight  years  old,  his 
fate  in  this  respect  being  far  less  for 
tunate  than  that  of  his  father.  Late 
52 


JOHN    GILLEY 

marriage  caused  him  to  miss  some 
of  the  most  exquisite  of  natural 
human  delights.  He  could  not  wit 
ness  the  coming  of  grandchildren  to 
maturity.  He  had  the  natural,  animal 
fondness  —  so  to  speak  —  for  chil 
dren,  the  economic  liking  for  them 
as  helpers,  and  the  real  love  for  them 
as  affectionate  comrades  and  friends. 
The  daughters  were  disposed  to 
help  in  the  support  of  the  family 
and  the  care  of  the  farm.  The  eldest 
went  through  the  whole  course  of  the 
Normal  School  at  Castine,  and  be 
came  a  teacher.  The  youngest  was 
best  at  household  and  farm  work, 
having  her  father's  head  for  business. 
The  other  daughter  was  married 
early,  but  had  already  gone  from  her 
father's  house  to  Little  Cranberry 
53 


JOHN    GILLEY 

Island  as  a  helper  in  the  family  of 
the  principal  storekeeper  on  that 
island.  Since  the  household  needed 
the  assistance  of  another  male,  it  was 
their  custom  to  hire  a  well-grown  boy 
or  a  man  during  the  better  part  of 
the  year,  the  wages  for  such  services 
being  not  more  than  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  cjollars  a  month  in  addition 
to  board  and  lodging. 

Although  the  island  lay  much 
nearer  to  the  shores  of  Mount  Desert 
than  Baker's  Island  did,  the  family 
had  hardly  more  intercourse  with  the 
main  island  than  William  Gilley's 
family  on  Baker's  Island  had  had 
a  generation  before.  They  found 
their  pleasures  chiefly  at  home.  In 
the  winter  evenings  they  read  aloud 
to  one  another,  thus  carrying  down 
54 


JOHN    GILLEY 

to  another  generation  the  habit  which 
Hannah  Lurvey  Gilley  had  estab 
lished  in  her  family.  The  same 
good  habit  has  been  transmitted  to 
the  family  of  one  of  John  Gilley's 
married  daughters,  where  it  is  now  in 
force. 

In  the  early  autumn  of  1874  a 
serious  disaster  befell  this  industrious 
and  thriving  family.  One  evening 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gilley  were  walking 
along  the  southern  shore  of  the  island 
toward  a  neighbor's  house,  when 
John  suggested  that  it  was  time  for 
Mary  Jane  to  get  the  supper,  and 
for  him  to  attend  to  the  fire  in  the 
smoke-house,  which  was  full  of  her 
ring  hung  up  to  smoke,  and  also  con 
tained  on  the  floor  a  large  quantity 
of  packed  herring,  the  fruit  of  the 
55 


JOHN    GILLEY 

entire  summer's  work  on  herring. 
The  smoke-house  was  large,  and  at 
one  end  there  stood  a  carpenter's 
bench  with  a  good  many  tools.  It 
was  also  used  as  a  place  of  storage 
for  rigging,  anchors,  blocks,  and 
other  seamen's  gear.  Mrs.  Gilley 
went  home  and  made  ready  the  sup 
per.  John  Gilley  arranged  the  fire 
as  usual  in  the  smoke-house,  and 
went  up  to  the  house  from  the 
shore.  As  the  family  were  sitting 
at  supper,  a  neighbor,  who  had  been 
calling  there  and  had  gone  out,  rushed 
back,  exclaiming,  "  Your  smoke 
house  is  all  afire !  "  So  indeed  it  was; 
and  in  a  few  minutes  John  Gilley's 
chief  investment  and  all  his  summer's 
work  went  up  in  flames.  The  whole 
family  ran  to  the  scene,  but  it  was 
56 


JOHN    GILLEY 

too  late  to  do  more  than  save  the 
fish-house  which  stood  near.  John 
opened  the  door  of  the  smoke-house 
and  succeeded  in  rescuing  a  pair  of 
oiled  trousers  and  his  precious  com 
pass,  which  stood  on  a  shelf  by  the 
door.  Everything  else  was  burned 
up  clean.  John  said  but  little  at  the 
moment,  and  looked  calmly  on  at 
the  quick  destruction  ;  but  when  he 
went  to  bed  that  night,  he  broke 
down  and  bewailed  his  loss  with  tears 
and  sobs.  He  had  lost  not  only  a 
sum  of  money  which  was  large  for 
him,  —  perhaps  five  hundred  dollars, 
—  but,  what  was  more,  he  had  lost 
an  object  of  interest  and  affection, 
and  a  means  of  livelihood  which 
represented  years  of  patient  labor. 
It  was  as  if  a  mill-owner  had  lost  his 
57 


JOHN    GILLEY 

mill  without  insurance,  or  the  owner 
of  a  noble  vessel  had  seen  her  go 
down  within  sight  of  home.  This 
was  the  only  time  in  all  their  married 
life  that  his  wife  ever  saw  him  over 
come  by  such  emotion.  In  conse 
quence  of  this  disaster,  it  was  necessary 
for  John  Gilley,  in  order  to  buy 
stores  enough  for  the  ensuing  winter, 
to  sell  part  of  the  live  stock  off  his 
farm.  This  fact  shows  how  close 
may  be  the  margin  of  livelihood  for 
a  family  on  the  New  England  coast 
which  really  owns  a  good  deal  of 
property  and  is  justly  held  by  its 
neighbors  to  be  well  off.  If  the 
cash  proceeds  of  a  season's  work 
are  lost  or  destroyed,  extraordinary 
and  undesirable  means  have  to  be 
taken  to  carry  over  the  family  to 
53 


JOHN    GILLEY 

another  season.  This  may  happen 
to  a  healthy,  industrious,  frugal  house 
hold.  Much  worse,  of  course,  may 
happen  in  consequence  of  sudden 
disaster  in  an  unthrifty  or  sickly 
family.  The  investments  of  poor 
men  are  apt  to  be  very  hazardous. 
They  put  their  all  into  farming-tools 
or  live  stock ;  they  risk  everything 
they  have  on  an  old  vessel  or  on  a 
single  crop,  and  therefore  on  the 
weather  of  a  single  season ;  with 
their  small  savings  they  build  a  barn 
or  a  smoke-house,  which  may  be  re 
duced  to  ashes  with  all  its  contents  in 
fifteen  minutes.  Insurance  they  can 
seldom  afford.  If  the  investments 
of  the  rich  were  as  hazardous  as  are 
those  of  the  poor,  theirs  would  be  a  lot 
even  more  worrisome  than  it  is  now. 
59 


JOHN    GILLEY 

The  smoke-house  was  never  re 
built.  At  first  the  money  to  rebuild 
was  lacking,  and  later  a  new  prospect 
opened  before  the  family.  After  the 
fire  John  Gilley  went  more  into  cows 
and  less  into  fat  oxen.  Hitherto  he 
had  always  kept  a  good  yoke  of 
oxen  and  some  steers,  and  he  had 
been  accustomed  to  do  their  hauling 
and  plowing  for  all  the  families  on 
the  island.  Thereafter  he  generally 
had  as  many  as  five  cows,  but  often 
only  a  single  young  ox  to  do  the 
hauling  for  the  island.  He  always 
trained  his  oxen  himself,  and  had 
pleasure  in  the  company  of  these 
patient  and  serviceable  creatures. 

In  1880  the  Gilleys  on  Button's 
Island  heard  that  three  "Westerners," 
or  "  rusticators,"  had  bought  land  at 
60 


JOHN    GILLEY 

North-East  Harbor.  One  was  said 
to  be  a  bishop,  another  the  president 
of  a  college,  and  the  third  and  earliest 
buyer  a  landscape-gardener  —  what 
ever  that  might  be.  It  was  even 
reported  that  one  of  these  pioneers 
had  landed  on  the  western  end  of 
Button's  Island  and  walked  the  length 
of  the  island.  The  news  was  in 
tensely  interesting  to  all  the  inhabi 
tants.  They  had  heard  of  the 
fabulous  prices  of  land  at  Bar  Har 
bor,  and  their  imaginations  began  to 
play  over  their  own  pastures  and 
wood-lots.  John  Gilley  went  steadily 
on  his  laborious  and  thrifty  way.  He 
served  the  town  in  various  capacities, 
such  as  selectman  and  collector  of 
taxes.  He  was  one  of  the  school 
committee  for  several  years,  and  later 
61 


JOHN    GILLEY 

one  of  the  board  of  health.  He  was 
also  road  surveyor  on  the  island  — 
there  being  but  one  road,  and  that 
grass-grown.  As  a  town  officer  John 
Gilley  exhibited  the  same  uprightness 
and  frugality  which  he  showed  in  all 
his  private  dealings.  To  be  chosen 
to  responsible  office  by  his  fellow- 
townsmen,  every  one  of  whom  knew 
him  personally,  was  to  him  a  source 
of  rational  gratification  ;  and  in  each 
of  his  offices  he  had  occasion  to  en 
large  his  knowledge  and  to  undertake 
new  responsibilities. 

In  1884  the  extreme  western  point 
of  Button's  Island  was  sold  to  a 
"Westerner,"  a  professor  in  Har 
vard  College,  and  shortly  after  a 
second  sale  in  the  same  neighbor 
hood  was  effected ;  but  it  was  not 
62 


JOHN    GILLEY 

until  1886  that  John  Gilley  made 
his  first  sale  of  land  for  summering 
purposes.  In  the  next  year  he  made 
another  sale,  and  in  1894  a  third. 
The  prices  he  obtained,  though 
moderate  compared  with  the  prices 
charged  at  Bar  Harbor  or  North- 
East  Harbor,  were  forty  or  fifty 
times  any  price  which  had  ever  been 
put  on  his  farm  by  the  acre.  Being 
thus  provided  with  what  was  for 
him  a  considerable  amount  of  ready 
money,  he  did  what  all  his  like  do 
when  they  come  into  possession  of 
ready  money  —  he  first  gave  himself 
and  his  family  the  pleasure  of  en 
larging  and  improving  his  house  and 
other  buildings,  and  then  lent  the 
balance  on  small  mortgages  on  village 
real  estate.  Suddenly  he  became  a 
63 


JOHN   GILLEY 

prosperous  man,  at  ease,  and  a  leader 
in  his  world.  Up  to  this  time,  since 
his  second  marriage,  he  had  merely 
earned  a  comfortable  livelihood  by 
diversified  industry ;  but  now  he  pos 
sessed  a  secured  capital  in  addition 
to  his  farm  and  its  buildings.  At 
last,  he  was  highly  content,  but 
nevertheless  ready  as  ever  for  new 
undertakings.  His  mind  was  active, 
and  his  eye  and  hand  were  steady. 

When  three  cottages  had  stood 
for  several  years  on  the  eastern  fore- 
side  of  North-East  Harbor,  —  the 
nearest  point  of  the  shore  of  Mount 
Desert  to  Button's  Island,  —  John 
Gilley,  at  the  age  of  seventy-one, 
undertook  to  deliver  at  these  houses 
milk,  eggs,  and  fresh  vegetables  every 
day,  and  chickens  and  fowls  when 
64 


JOHN    GILLEY 

they  were  wanted.     This  undertaking 
involved  his  rowing  in  all  weathers 
nearly  two  miles  from  his  cove  to  the 
landings  of  these  houses,  and   back 
again,  across   bay  waters    which   are 
protected    indeed    from    the    heavy 
ocean    swells,   but    are    still    able   to 
produce  what  the  natives  call  "  a  big 
chop."     Every    morning  he  arrived 
with  the  utmost  punctuality,  in  rain 
or  shine,  calm  or  blow,  and  alone, 
unless  it  blew  heavily  from  the  north 
west  (a  head  wind  from  Button's),  or 
his  little  grandson  —  his  mate,  as  he 
called  the  boy  —  wanted  to  accompany 
him  on  a  fine,  still  morning.     Soon 
he  extended  his  trips  to  the  western 
side   of  North-East    Harbor,    where 
he  found  a  much  larger  market  for 
his  goods  than  he  had  found  thirty- 
5  65 


JOHN    GILLEY 

five  years  before,  when  he  first  de 
livered  milk  at  Squire  Kimball's 
tavern.  This  business  involved  what 
was  new  work  for  John  Gilley, 
namely,  the  raising  of  fresh  vege 
tables  in  much  larger  variety  and 
quantity  than  he  was  accustomed  to. 
He  entered  on  this  new  work  with 
interest  and  intelligence,  but  was  of 
course  sometimes  defeated  in  his 
plans  by  wet  weather  in  spring,  a 
drought  in  summer,  or  by  the  worms 
and  insects  which  unexpectedly  at 
tacked  his  crops.  On  the  whole  he 
was  decidedly  successful  in  this 
enterprise  undertaken  at  seventy-one. 
Those  who  bought  of  him  liked  to 
deal  with  him,  and  he  found  in  the 
business  fresh  interest  and  pleasure. 
Not  many  men  take  up  a  new  out- 
66 


JOHN    GILLEY 

of-door  business  at  seventy,  and 
carry  it  on  successfully  by  their  own 
brains  and  muscles.  It  was  one  of 
the  sources  of  his  satisfaction  that 
he  thus  supplied  the  two  daughters 
who  still  lived  at  his  house  with  a 
profitable  outlet  for  their  energies. 
One  of  these  —  the  school-teacher  — 
was  an  excellent  laundress,  and  the 
other  was  devoted  to  the  work  of  the 
house  and  the  farm,  and  was  helpful 
in  her  father's  new  business.  John 
Gilley  transported  the  washes  from 
North-East  Harbor  and  back  again 
in  his  rowboat,  and  under  the  new 
conditions  of  the  place  washing  and 
ironing  proved  to  be  more  profitable 
than  school-keeping. 

In    the    fall    of   1896    the    family 
which  had  occupied  that  summer  one 
67 


JOHN    GILLEY 

of  the  houses  John  Gilley  was  in  the 
habit  of  supplying  with  milk,  eggs, 
and  vegetables,  and  which  had  a 
young  child  dependent  on  the  milk, 
lingered  after  the  other  summer 
households  had  departed.  He  con 
sented  to  continue  his  daily  trips  a 
few  days  into  October  that  the  child's 
milk  might  not  be  changed,  although 
it  was  perfectly  clear  that  his  labor 
could  not  be  adequately  recompensed. 
On  the  last  morning  but  one  that  he 
was  to  come  across  from  the  island  to 
the  harbor  a  strong  northeast  wind 
was  blowing,  and  some  sea  was  run 
ning  through  the  deep  passage  be 
tween  Button's  Island  and  Bear 
Island,  which  he  had  to  cross  on  his 
way  to  and  fro.  He  took  with  him 
in  his  boat  the  young  man  who  had 
68 


JOHN     GILLEY 

been  working  for  him  on  the  farm 
the  few  weeks  past.  They  delivered 
the  milk,  crossed  to  the  western  side 
of  North-East  Harbor,  did  some  er 
rands,  there,  and  started  cheerfully 
for  home,  as  John  Gilley  had  done 
from  that  shore  hundreds  of  times 
before.  The  boy  rowed  from  a  seat 
near  the  bow,  and  the  old  man  sat  on 
the  thwart  near  the  stern,  facing  the 
bow,  and  pushing  his  oars  from  him. 
They  had  no  thought  of  danger  ;  but 
to  ease  the  rowing  they  kept  to  wind 
ward  under  Bear  Island,  and  then 
pushed  across  the  deep  channel, 
south  by  west,  for  the  western  point 
of  Button's  Island.  They  were  more 
than  half-way  across  when,  through 
some  inattention  or  lack  of  skill  on 
the  part  of  the  young  man  in  the 
69 


JOHN    GILLEY 

bow,  a  sea  higher  or  swifter  than  the 
rest  threw  a  good  deal  of  water  into 
the  boat.  John  Gilley  immediately 
began  to  bail,  and  told  the  rower  to 
keep  her  head  to  the  waves.  The 
overweighted  boat  was  less  manage 
able  than  before,  and  in  a  moment 
another  roller  turned  her  completely 
over.  Both  men  clung  to  the  boat 
and  climbed  on  to  her  bottom.  She 
drifted  away  before  the  wind  and  sea 
toward  South- West  Harbor.  The 
oversetting  of  the  boat  had  been 
seen  from  both  Bear  Island  and 
Sutton's  Island ;  but  it  was  nearly 
three  quarters  of  an  hour  before  the 
rescuers  could  reach  the  floating  boat, 
and  then  the  young  man,  though 
unconscious,  was  still  clinging  to  the 
boat's  keel,  but  the  old  man,  chilled 
70 


JOHN    GILLEY 

by  the  cold  water  and  stunned  by  the 
waves  which  beat  about  his  head, 
had  lost  his  hold  and  sunk  into  the 
sea.  In  half  an  hour  John  Gilley 
had  passed  from  a  hearty  and  success 
ful  old  age  in  this  world,  full  of  its 
legitimate  interests  and  satisfactions, 
into  the  voiceless  mystery  of  death. 
No  trace  of  his  body  was  ever  found. 
It  disappeared  into  the  waters  on 
which  he  had  played  and  worked  as 
boy  and  man  all  his  long  and  for 
tunate  life.  He  left  his  family  well 
provided  for,  and  full  of  gratitude 
and  praise  for  his  honorable  career 
and  his  sterling  character. 

This  is  the  life  of  one  of  the  for 
gotten     millions.       It    contains     no 
material  for  distinction,  fame,  or  long 
remembrance ;    but    it    does   contain 
71 


JOHN    GILLEY 

the  material  and  present  the  scene 
for  a  normal  human  development 
through  mingled  joy  and  sorrow, 
labor  and  rest,  adversity  and  success, 
and  through  the  tender  loves  of  child 
hood,  maturity,  and  age.  We  cannot 
but  believe  that  it  is  just  for  countless 
quiet,  simple  lives  like  this  that  God 
made  and  upholds  this  earth. 


72 


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